The hazards of driving too slow

Pennsylvania law forbids drivers from traveling below the speed limit if it begins to hinder the flow of traffic. There’s a reason for this — driving too slow is dangerous, often leading to rear-end collisions. However, it’s mostly hazardous in the way that it can give rise to anger and impatience in other drivers.

Drivers who meet with a slowpoke on the highway should not tailgate or fiercely pass on the right. Rather, they should wait for up to a minute to see if the slow driver will move. If they do not, then drivers can try to catch their attention with a flash of the headlights. As a last resort, they could gently honk their horn.

Many slow drivers are simply distracted. Phones, in particular, can quickly make one forget how fast they were traveling. According to the National Safety Council, phones can reduce activity in the brain’s parietal lobe by 37%, thus impairing the ability to observe surroundings.

Other drivers may travel slowly because they are newly licensed and timid about going the speed limit. In other cases, drivers might be suffering from vision problems or other health conditions that come with age. Arthritis, for example, stiffens the joints and can make acceleration hard.

Still, the law is what it is, and if slow drivers contribute to a crash, they will be held at fault. Of course, other drivers could be partially at fault, too, if their aggressiveness around the slow driver contributed. Victims may pursue a personal injury claim as long as their own degree of fault is 50% or less, but they will likely have a hard time negotiating a settlement that covers their losses. This is where legal representation might be beneficial.